N522x/4xB PNA/PNA-X Vector Network Analyzers Enhancement

Proprietary DDS (Direct Digital Synthesizer) improves your active device characterization and decreases test time

• Extremely low phase noise

• Excellent phase stability improving measurement speed

• Three sources to simplify measurement setups

New DDS Synthesizers Improve PNA Measurement Performance

Measuring next generation devices

Testing mixers and frequency converters for 5G and satellite applications involves many parameters including gain, phase, delay, IMD, gain compression, and noise figure. With so many parameters to capture, it can take days or even weeks to characterize complex transponders. When you finally have your test results, you need to know if spurious or phase noise at the device’s output is from the device itself or from your input signal. It’s impossible to trace the origins of errors without a consistent and reliable test setup.

The new DDS sources in the PNA and PNA-X feature extremely low phase noise and spurious emissions to help you measure complex components faster.

Very low phase noise of RF source signal

New N522xB PNA and N524xB PNA-X Vector Network Analyzers employ DDS (Direct Digital Synthesizers) as the signal sources. DDS sources typically introduce unwanted spurious emissions, but Keysight’s proprietary DDS developed for high-end signal generators achieves both extremely low phase noise, -122 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset at 10 GHz carrier (typical) and low spur levels, < -80 dBc (typical). The new sources improve the phase noise by 30 dB and also measurements that require input signals with low phase noise such as close two-tone IMD measurements.

The new sources with DDS with very low phase noise make phase measurements more stable and improves the measurement performance of some applications that require stable phase noise measurements: SMC+phase, differential IQ, true mode stimulus analysis.

Option UNY Enhanced low phase noise improves the phase noise performance of the new standard PNA/PNA-X by 10 dB or better, -131 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset at 10 GHz carrier (typical). The phase noise performance is comparable to the low phase noise option of high-performance analog signal generators like Keysight PSG with Option UNY mode 1.

Measurement speed improvement

The frequency converter test is typically time-consuming, and you need to measure various measurement parameters such as gain, delay, phase, IMD, spurious, gain compression, and noise figure. One of the biggest benefits from the new DDS source is the phase measurement stability. When you measure the phase and delay of frequency converters, you may need to take averages due to relatively large trace noise of phase measurements, which slows down the measurements. The new sources achieve excellent phase measurement stability and eliminate the need for averaging. The combination of general speed improvement and excellent phase measurement stability significantly reduces the test time, and in some cases, it drastically improves the test throughput of the frequency converters by more than 50 times without compromising the measurement accuracy.